Noticeable absences at Hawkeye scrimmage - KWWL.com

Iowa's depleted backfield looked a little thinner during the Hawks annual kids day scrimmage on Saturday.  Projected starter Damon Bullock participated along with former Cedar Rapids Washington stand-out, walk-on Andre Dawson.  Freshmen Barkley Hill of Cedar Falls and Greg Garmon both were absent.  Coach Kirk Ferentz admitted afterward that some players had been banged up without elaborating.

Saturday's scrimmage went smoothly otherwise, although it was clear it was one of the first this fall.  Ferentz acknowledged that fact.

"I think it's pretty obvious we've got a lot of work to do," Ferentz said, "There are some good things out here, but a lot of errors certainly, and there's a lot of work we've got to do in a lot of areas."

Starting quarterback James Vandenberg agreed, "Clearly we have a long way to go.  We've had 11 good practices so far, and we're moving in the right direction.  There's going to be miscommunications at this point, and stuff happens.  You've got to keep playing through it, and clearly we know as a team we've got a lot of improvement to do, but we've got 2 or 3 weeks to get that done."

Iowa opens up against Northern Illinois on September 1st in Chicago.